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Don’t Let Your Landing Pages Be A Flea Market

Today was interesting. I’m in beautiful visiting Mexico on vacation, and while shopping at a local flea market, I was approached – practically all at once after distinctly hearing one merchant yell out “Americans” – by over 30 different people selling random products. They were aggressive in a “buy my shit or I’ll make sure you don’t leave here alive” kind of way, but some were pretty good at targeting my interests. My first feeling was that of being overwhelmed, but slowly I got my balance back.

One merchant said, “I have best price on Harley Davidson shirt. Almost free!” Interesting. I wasn’t wearing any Harley stuff, but I do ride a Harley. I am fond of them. Maybe it was my 2 week old scruff?

“We have 50 different kinds of tequila here,” said another. Again, brilliant relevance. I have a soft spot for hard liquor.

“Buy your lady a hat!” Shit, that guy tried to chump me right in front of my girlfriend, so of course that would make me bite.

But then the last one said, “Blow? Weed? Viagra?”

I’m not a drug guy, and don’t need… umm… Viagra (yet). So maybe since I looked like a drunk hippie biker, I looked like a good prospect? Either way, it was off target, and I got the hell out of that part of the market.

The digital world can be like a flea market. We’ve gotten better at yelling more relevant things at prospects thanks to remarking cookies, analytics, and so on. But with all the growing noise, it’s still really hard to tune into any one voice – especially if you’re not in a buying mood. We know the majority of people in a buying mood are using search. So, the inbound marketers try to create more relevant landing pages, but even we can miss our target if we assume we’re being heard correctly. In this case, a landing page about Harley Davidson products, tequila, and Mexican hats for my girlfriend would have probably held my attention perfectly, and pushed me towards a conversion. But one awry signal too many and a red flag goes up. We wind up punching out, going back to Google, and hitting the second listing… if not refining our search.

What Can You Do To Convert In Your Marketplace The First Time?

Only hit people with exactly what they want, and don’t hit too hard. It’s my belief that people really don’t want to search. They use Google because they have to, but if they have to search your site (or even your landing page) once they click off Google, you’re risking a bounced visit. Make the items worth highlighting big, bright, and bold. Assume you have 3 seconds to lock them in before they retreat back to the SERPs.

Make they’re life easier. Just give them the offers or content, with as little fluff or obvious funneling as possible. For most of us who aren’t major brand stores or news outlets, less is more. You have a better chance at being a “convenient store” than trying to go up against an Amazon, but if you’re landing pages are also uber-niche to boot, you’ll be more successful.

Finding out exactly what to write about isn’t too difficult. I look at Ubersuggest, a great keyword research tool run off Google Suggest. Run some queries relevant to your topic idea, and jot down a few that seem like potentials. Do they inspire buckets? Or do they inspire a single paragraph, or maybe a whole stand-alone page?

Also look at the new attribution feature in Google Analytics. Do you see any back to back searches that suggest what a user is really looking for? Did they search Girl’s Harley Hat, then Gifts For Women? If I saw that I’d sure be wishing I had a page titled “Harley Davidson Gifts For Women – Harley Hats” (or something like that). What I wouldn’t want to do is add men’s hats, or other motorcycle hats on this page (except maybe in the navigation). Too much noise and irrelevance doesn’t make your landing page convenient. I’d even try to find a way to write something interesting about women bikers who are passionate about the Harley brand and collect hats (yes, these women do exist). Do this, and you’d have just created a small, relevant, clean, clear, niche page that may not get a huge amount of traffic, but can get a few interested shoppers who intend to stick around. Better yet, you won’t have to chase them down and yell at them. Great success!

Oh, and some proof that this is a true story, here’s my girlfriend walking out with the hat I got suckered into buying:

Ex-big agency guy, now focused on helping small and medium sized business. I've been practicing SEO since 1998. I started the SEO practice at a major digital agency owned by eBay and helped develop SEO products for one of the largest ecommerce platforms. I'm a proud member of the Philadelphia SEO scene. I'm passionate about search, writing, UX, CRO, and psychology in marketing. Read More

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